Chapter 4551: Fierce Battle Within The Array
Chapter 4551: Fierce Battle Within The Array
Lu Yin had expected the Lepids to be afraid of the Grand Clarity sourcebox array. The tenth Lepid that was charging at him clearly recognized the array, and yet it still dared to rush over. Did that mean that this sourcebox array posed no threat to it? Or was this not an offensive array?
Before Lu Yin could think further, the Lepid dropped down. Overwhelming pressure and Lifeforce crashed down upon Lu Yin. "You come from that dark civilization. Why have you come to my Lepidarch Continent? Why are you able to activate one of the Grand Clarity sourcebox arrays?"
This was the first time any Lepid from the Lepidarch Continent had addressed Lu Yin. Previously, they had simply fought against him desperately. None of the Lepids had ever intended to let him live, and Lu Yin had never intended to waste words with them either. There was no true communication in the Aevum Inch.
However, something that both sides recognized had just appeared.
Lu Yin endured the pressure to look up at the Lepid. "I am searching for everything connected to this civilization. Give it to me, and I can leave."
The Lepid shrieked, "You want to contact that civilization?"
Lu Yin shook his head. "I only want to obtain everything that belonged to them."
The Lepid flapped its wings. It remained silent for a moment and then suddenly launched an attack.
By this time, Lu Yin also clearly saw what this sourcebox array was used for: isolation. It had isolated the patch of the universe that surrounded him, including the Lepid that was attacking him. It was all fully isolated from everything outside the sourcebox array. Even the Immortal Lepids had been isolated outside. Even if they surrounded the array, they could not enter it.
The Stillness powered the sourcebox array, shooting straight into the sky and isolating Lu Yin from the entire Lepidarch Continent.
In other words, the only two within this sourcebox array were Lu Yin and the one Immortal Lepid.
Bang!
A thunderous sound erupted in front of him. Lu Yin endured the power of Bloomdance Transfer, his body merely trembling once before he rushed forward to throw a punch at the Lepid. Myriad Metal Qi condensed in front of the Immortal, blocking Lu Yin's punch.
The deafening impact caused the Myriad Metal Qi to shatter. The Lepid was just about to attack again, only to have apparently forgotten something as it froze in place.
Lu Yin knew that this was the effect of the Yan Gate's First Needle. That needle wounded the mind and threw one’s thoughts into chaos. But that was not to say that Lu Yin was having an easy time of things. This Lepid's Butterfly Bloom was continuously absorbing his consciousness, which caused his movements to slow as well. He moved with far less accuracy than before.
Two sluggish beings clashed within the sourcebox array. The Lepid did not dare to let Lu Yin get close and constantly used Bloomdance Transfer to open up the distance between them. Lu Yin tanked the Lepid's attacks without being injured, and he even managed to occasionally unleash Endless Recall. As long as he found an opportunity, he could tear this Lepid apart.
What Lu Yin lacked was not an opening to get close to the Lepid. If this Lepid truly thought that it could rely on Bloomdance Transfer to open up some distance, it was delusional. Right now, Lu Yin's bones were tough enough to endure all of those attacks. Rather, he still did not know what method this particular Lepid had used to avoid his earlier strike.
If it could avoid Lu Yin’s attack once, then it could do so a second time. What he wanted was to clearly see what the Lepid was doing.
This Lepid should have become an Immortal via a direct breakthrough. Its cosmic law and unseen world were definitely not weak.
Outside the sourcebox array, seven Lepids danced about in the sky. Inside the array, Lu Yin engaged in a fierce fight against the tenth Lepid. Five times. He had already gotten close to the Lepid five times, but each time, it had managed to avoid his close-range attack. If he could catch it even once, the Lepid would be in trouble.
But even after five attempts, Lu Yin had not caught it once.
The Bloomdance Transfer kept attacking him through the flower on the front of his chest, but no attacks came through either of the other two flowers. The sourcebox array was able to block Bloomdance Transfer.
Bang, bang, bang!
Light sounds echoed out from his chest. Although Lu Yin's skeleton clone had been refined with Myriad Metal Qi and was able to withstand this Lepid's attacks, they had fought too fiercely for too long. Every blow that he received was also striking the same place, and even Lu Yin could not bear it. Cracks had already appeared in the white bones of his chest.
Endless Recall.
The colorful Lepid dodged and flew away.
Yan Gate's First Needle.
Myriad Metal Qi.
The many strands of Myriad Metal Qi did not stab at Lu Yin, but were instead aimed at the First Needle.
The Yan Gate's First Needle was invisible and formless, which made it extremely difficult to detect. Unfortunately, the Lepid was skilled at devouring Myriad Metal Qi, and Lu Yin had also formed the First Needle from Myriad Metal Qi, so the Lepid was naturally able to find it.
This allowed the Lepid to use numerous strands of Myriad Metal Qi to counter the First Needle.
Lu Yin immediately changed his approach. He no longer used Myriad Metal Qi to unleash Yan Gate's First Needle, but rather ordinary energy.
However, doing this meant that the needle could not pierce the Lepid's body at all. The Yan Gate's First Needle was very powerful, but there was no guarantee that it would hit every time. Success also depended on the strength of the First Needle that was unleashed. Without using Myriad Metal Qi to form the needle, it was difficult to pierce the Lepid's body.
Lu Yin closed the distance again. He forced himself to endure the dizziness and reached out to grab the Lepid.
He missed again.
Four directions. He had discovered it. Every time he missed, the Lepid did not move very far away. Instead, it appeared quite close by. In fact, its appearance did not vary at all; it always appeared directly to the right, left, front, or back of its original position. It had already dodged Lu Yin’s attacks six times, and without fail, it had only ever appeared in one of those four locations.
It was direction. When this Lepid encountered danger, it could choose a direction to dodge in. This method of dodging was very difficult to perceive in advance.
As Lu Yin was thinking, there was a loud bang, and he was blasted away. He looked up to see Lifeforce falling, merged with Myriad Metal Qi. He looked at the vast Lifeforce attacking him. That's right. Lifeforce can also form the Yan Gate's First Needle.
At his fingertip, Lifeforce gathered before being released.
Both the skeleton clone and his true body were Lu Yin, and they both possessed his same mind and spirit. It was easy for him to transform Wielder-realm battle force into Lifeforce.
The Yan Gate's First stabbed into the Lepid, once more leaving it stunned. Lu Yin seized the opportunity to unleash four Duality Seals in quick succession, attacking the four cardinal directions around the Lepid.
Three attacks missed, but one hit.
The Life and Death Seal art struck the Lepid and slammed it down towards the ground.
The Lepid regained its senses and let out a shriek. Bloomdance Transfer kept bombarding the white bones of Lu Yin's chest, causing them to split apart. Yet he remained unphased and simply unleashed four more Duality Seals. As he attacked, the Lepid appeared directly behind its previous position and was struck again.
These Lepids lacked powerful attacks. That was their greatest weakness. Although they had attacks that could not be dodged or avoided, like Butterfly Bloom and Bloomdance Transfer, as long as one was able to endure those two attacks, these Lepids were not worth fearing.
Lu Yin was glad that he had refined his bones with Myriad Metal Qi. If not for that, this Lepid would have shattered his bones long ago.
The seven Lepids outside the sourcebox array grew anxious. Their voices incessantly rang out with threats.
Lu Yin did not care at all. He pressed the tenth Lepid to the ground, and the Duality Seal fell yet again. Suddenly, the universe seemed to shrink, and his entire body was enveloped within a sheet of gray-white light.
Where am I? Lu Yin looked up. Above his head was a seamless gray-white expanse. It looked like a wall. It was neither high nor low, which created the contradictory sensation that it was both far beyond the horizon and close at hand.
He reached up and punched upward.
The gray-white space trembled and then shattered. As the fragments fell, behind them was yet more gray-white expanse.
He threw another punch. He again shattered the expanse, yet behind it was more of the same.
What is this thing?
Within the sourcebox array, the tenth Lepid flew up from underground. It looked absolutely miserable. It swayed unsteadily, and after it finally stabilized itself with great difficulty, it laid down beside the pit in the ground.
Outside the array, the other Lepids called out, "How is it?"
"In the end, were you forced to use the mirebound artifact bestowed to you by the ancestor?"
The tenth Lepid weakly replied, "This being is very strong. My attacks are unable to do anything to him. This was the only choice."
"Strange. He was clearly unable to withstand our Bloomdance Transfers before. You should have been able to defeat him very quickly. Why was your battle so fierce and so long?"
"This being is improving."
"To improve so much in such a short time is truly terrifying."
"No wonder the ancestor told us not to approach that dark civilization."
"What do we do now?"
"Wait until the power disappears from this sourcebox array, and then gather the power of all of us colorful Lepids. We will all place Butterfly Blooms on him and crush him."
"With eight Butterfly Blooms, no matter how powerful he may be, he will not be able to hold on. He will have no strength to resist at all, not to mention that he will also be attacked by our Bloomdance Transfer with his own strength that we absorb from him. He is guaranteed to die."
The voices disappeared, and silence reigned. All of the Lepids were waiting for the Stillness that powered the sourcebox array to disappear.
At this moment, Lu Yin was still shattering the gray-white expanses. No matter how many spaces he shattered, all that it revealed was yet another gray-white expanse. It seemed endless and inexhaustible.
He could not afford to wait. If the Stillness powering the sourcebox array disappeared, as soon as he reappeared, he would find eight Butterfly Bloom being used on him. At that time, he would truly have no choice but to let his true body come. If not, his skeleton clone would definitely die.
However, if his true body appeared, even if he ignored how he would face the Lepidarch Continent, Thousand Machinations might notice the disturbance.
Lu Yin looked at the gray-white expanse. The defense of this space was nothing impressive. What was intimidating was its endlessness. In that case, he would see if this endlessness could overcome his most powerful attack.
Thinking of this, he released stars. They revolved around him as all of the Stillness of the Cosmic Art condensed. One hand held Stillness and the other held Activeness, forming the Duality Seal. The black-and-white light enveloped Lu Yin's entire body as the Duality Seal slowly rotated, gathering more and more power.
In an actual battle, no enemy would give him this much time to gather power, but in this place, it was possible.
When all the Stillness had fully merged into the Duality Seal, Lu Yin leapt up and struck at the gray-white expanse. Black-and-white light pierced the sky and appeared among the many Lepids flying about.
The tenth Lepid lying on the ground stared underground in disbelief. Impossible! He actually broke free of the mirebound artifact and escaped? This power? How does he still have so much?
In fact, from the very beginning, the Lepid had wanted to use the mirebound artifact to seal Lu Yin away and then wait for the Stillness powering the sourcebox array to disappear. After that, all the Lepids would be able to erase Lu Yin in one push. It was the simplest method to eliminate him.
The reason why the Lepid had put up such a fierce fight instead of immediately using the mirebound artifact was that it feared that Lu Yin’s reserves of Stillness were too much and that he might be able to escape. That was why the Lepid had continuously depleted his Stillness.
Unfortunately, after Lu Yin saw through the Lepid’s cosmic law and unseen world, it had had no choice but to use the mirebound artifact. In fact, it felt that it was quite the suitable timing. It had never considered that Lu Yin might still have so much Stillness remaining.
He had used a great deal of Stillness to activate the sourcebox array and even more to fight against the Lepid. In particular, after Lu Yin had seen through the tenth Lepid’s escape pattern and started repeatedly unleashing four Duality Seals simultaneously, his consumption of Stillness had also increased fourfold. He had been very quickly consuming energy, and the tenth Lepid felt that his Stillness had to be nearly depleted. Even if it were beaten to death, it would have never imagined Lu Yin could still have so much left.
The Lepids outside of the sourcebox array knew that Lu Yin possessed an unfathomable amount of Stillness, but they could not interfere in the battle inside of the sourcebox array. They could only gamble with the mirebound artifact.
They had lost their gamble.